Drug Driving (Assessment of Drug Misuse) Bill

Fiona Bruce Excerpts

Friday 18th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con)]

It gives me great pleasure to support this private Member’s Bill introduced by my neighbouring Cheshire MP, my hon. Friend the Member for Weaver Vale (Graham Evans), especially because it sends out such an important message to young people in particular. The fact is that, tragically, innocent people die when individuals drug-drive just as they do when people drink-drive—people such as Ron Birch, whose family graciously allowed the circumstances of his death to be highlighted in a Cheshire road safety partnership campaign.

Ron was killed in his Transit van when a lorry driver who had taken drugs swerved into oncoming traffic and hit him. It was his 58th birthday. That evening his family sat at home with his birthday meal waiting for him to arrive back. He never did. He left a wife, two sons and three grandchildren. We must do all we can to send out a message that drug-driving is equally as wrong and as dangerous as drink-driving, and that we will deal with it equally as stringently.

The importance of this Bill is that not only does it send out that message, but it does so in a very practical way, providing for the police to require those found to be drug-driving to be assessed by a qualified drug worker for drug dependency or drug misuse, so that they can access appropriate specialised treatment for that individual to help them get off and stay off drugs. I hope that the assessments will be strongly directional in that way, because in the long term that will benefit those individuals, their families and the communities affected by drug-related crime, and it will make our roads safer.

The Bill strikes an appropriate balance between sending out a clear message, underpinned with prosecution for drug offences, and helping offenders into recovery and rehabilitation. As my hon. Friend said, and as the Secretary of State for Transport has said, a zero-tolerance approach should be taken to those who drive under the influence of illegal drugs. The reason for that is clear: more than 51,000 people were convicted of driving under the influence of illegal substances in 2012, and every one of those represents the potential risk of a wrecked life or wrecked lives.

I commend the work of Cheshire Road Safety Group, whose active work, particularly on the part of Cheshire fire and rescue service, involves officers going into schools in Cheshire to advise young people how to drive safely. They advise young people never to drive after taking drink or drugs, and that is so important because road crashes are the biggest single killer of young people aged 17 to 25 in the UK. The Bill, if passed, will play a significant part in preventing many of those tragic deaths and serious injuries involving young people on our roads.

I also commend the work of Cheshire police road safety. I wish to alert the House and my hon. Friend the Member for Weaver Vale to the concern of one of its lead officers, who this week said that better field impairment tests are essential if our approach is to be effective, as are accurate data on offences where the toxic mix of both drug-driving and drink-driving is involved. That will facilitate a better understanding of the number of these incidents, which are often either placed in just one of the two categories. Perhaps that could be explored further in Committee, because if the Bill’s objectives are to be fully achieved, that research and data will be essential.

I commend the work that my hon. Friend has put into the preparation of the Bill, and I hope that it will garner wider support across the House during its passage, to facilitate its successful implementation.